Watercolor Miniature

Creativity did finally come knocking two days ago.
I painted a small watercolour ( or 'watercolor' )and then another the next evening...by small I mean miniature. The desire to paint was strong but discouragement over the potential outcome had been stronger till about 2 weeks ago when I saw a really lovely card sized painting a friend of mine had done which was followed last week by seeing a really beautiful portrait done in miniature online.

I decided to simply cut into pieces a few pieces of watercolour paper. I told myself it would be an opportunity to really test the papers with the 3 different paints I own. Both paper and paints are student grade I might add: Daler Rowney's Georgian, Winsor & Newton's Cotman, and the last is either Reeves or Pentel.

Because I was kind of surprised at how much I liked the way the first one turned out ( it was referenced from a coffee coaster that depicted a cat in front of a fence surrounded by flowers ) I made a second painting based on a photograph I took of fall leaves covering a tire. Despite the fact that the materials are student grade it might very well be that the paper and paints I use are simply quite suited for small scale work.

And because small scale art requires a lot of concentration I think the grade of paint and paper are of less importance that the quality of the paint brushes. If I think back to the time when I first painted a miniature on a blown out egg of a peacock on a tree limb surrounded by morning glory flowers I have to wonder why it never really occurred to me to try this sooner.